- 4,190g/t silver at Buckhorn - the standout result, alongside 1.40g/t gold and 2.41% copper, giving journalists a very strong headline number.
- High-grade results across four separate prospects - Buckhorn, Washington, Accrington and Michigan all returned significant silver, gold and/or copper, supporting a broader district-scale polymetallic story rather than a single isolated hit.
- Drilling is the next catalyst - Diablo is now refining and ranking targets for maiden drilling at Horn Silver, while North Star drilling at the nearby Star Range Project is scheduled to commence shortly.
31 August 2026 – Perth, WA | Diablo Resources (ASX: DBO) has expanded its drill target pipeline at the Horn Silver Project in Utah after first-pass reconnaissance sampling returned high-grade silver, gold and copper across several prospects, including a peak silver result of 4,190 grams per tonne.
The results provide Diablo with new areas for follow-up exploration across Horn Silver, where 66 reconnaissance rock samples were collected from historical workings, outcrop and float to test known anomalies and identify previously unrecognised mineralised zones. High-grade results were recorded across the Buckhorn, Washington, Accrington and Michigan prospects, broadening the company’s inventory of targets beyond the historic Horn Silver Mine.
At Buckhorn, three samples from shallow workings interpreted to sit on a parallel trend to the main mineralised fault returned 4,190g/t silver with 1.40g/t gold and 2.41% copper, 490g/t silver with 1.21g/t gold, and 310g/t silver.
Washington also produced a cluster of high-grade polymetallic results across a roughly 950-metre corridor. These included 1,730g/t silver with 5.74g/t gold, 1,475g/t silver with 7.57g/t gold and 3.37% copper, and 631g/t silver with 8.45g/t gold and 6.27% copper. Zinc, lead, molybdenum and antimony were also elevated in several samples.
At Accrington, sampling outlined a zone of copper, silver, gold, lead and zinc mineralisation along key structural trends, with individual results reaching 985g/t silver and 6.99% copper. The Michigan Prospect, meanwhile, returned the strongest gold result of the program at 18.05g/t gold, alongside 199g/t silver and 2.07% copper.
The results are significant for Diablo because they add several regional exploration targets to a project already centred on the historically mined Horn Silver system. Diablo holds an 80% interest in the project, which comprises 101 patented and 101 unpatented claims in Utah’s Frisco Mining District. The historic Horn Silver Mine produced about 17 million ounces of silver at an average grade of 604g/t silver.
The sampling also supports Diablo’s strategy of building a broader Utah critical-minerals portfolio alongside its nearby Star Range Project, located about 15 kilometres from Horn Silver. The company says the proximity of the projects may allow it to share technical expertise, contractors, field logistics, permitting activities and future drilling programs.
The results come against a strengthening US policy focus on domestic critical-minerals supply. Silver and copper were included on the United States’ final 2025 List of Critical Minerals, alongside antimony, lead and zinc — meaning the principal commodities targeted across Diablo’s Utah portfolio are recognised as critical minerals in the US. In July 2026, the US also issued an executive order covering critical-material supply chain mapping and measures aimed at accelerating testing and qualification of new sources for defence production.
CEO Lyle Thorne commented:
“The first-pass reconnaissance sampling program within the unpatented claims at Horn materially strengthened Diablo’s critical-minerals exploration target pipeline, confirming multiple zones of anomalous silver, gold, copper and antimony while outlining several newly emerging structural and geochemical mineralised corridors across the project. These early results demonstrate exciting potential, adding meaningful depth to our exploration inventory and complementing existing near-mine targets at the historic Horn Silver Mine and identified regional prospects.
This exploration work including detailed sampling, mapping and structural analysis will aim to identify and rank the high impact drill targets.
In parallel, scheduled drilling at the North Star Prospect in the Star Range Project is providing another near-term catalyst for the Company. With multiple new emerging targets and drilling set to commence, shareholders can expect a strong cadence of news flow over the coming months as first-pass results are followed by more detailed work programs including drilling.”
The company has cautioned that the Horn Silver results are from early-stage grab sampling. The samples were selectively collected from historical workings and visibly mineralised material and are therefore not representative of the average grade of a mineralised zone or necessarily indicative of the grades or widths that could be encountered in future drilling. No drilling was undertaken as part of the program.
Diablo will now integrate the new assays with its historical dataset and update its geological models to refine and rank targets. Drill planning is underway for Horn Silver, while the company also intends to complete the acquisition of patented claims under its existing option agreement. Separately, maiden drilling at the North Star Prospect within the Star Range Project is scheduled to commence shortly.
Contact details:
Jane Morgan
T: +61 405 555 618
Lyle Thorne
Chief Executive Officer
Diablo Resources Ltd
E: [email protected]
T: +61 (8) 6383 7837
W: diabloresources.com.au
